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Here's what was New at Chessville between
1 July 2007 and 30 September 2007
 (9/30)
Mexico: GM Ray Keene's latest article
(Keene On Chess) looks at the FIDE World
Championship and includes two annotated games:
Botvinnik-Euwe, World
Championship Match-Tournament The Hague/Moscow 1948, a Slav Defence; and
Kramnik – Morozevich, World Championship,
Mexico City 2007, a Catalan Opening. "Traditionally,
the title of world champion is decided by a
 mano
a mano battle between the world’s two top players. This format was
recognised even in the early matches between Staunton and St Amant, and
Morphy and Anderssen, which predate the widely accepted year (1886) from
which the Championship officially emanates.
The sole exception to this rule hitherto was 1948 when Alekhine’s death as
incumbent caused an interregnum which necessitated a five-man match
tournament to decide the destination of the title..." |
(9/30) Review:
World Champion Fischer (CD)
by GM Robert Huebner,
Reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. Fans of the Professor's reviews know
he almost always includes two or more fully annotated games in each review,
and this one is in that mold. Included are the games Tringov - Fischer,
Havana 1965; Ficher - Larsen,
Candidates' Match Semifinal ( 1) 10.6.07.1971; and Fischer - Huebner,
Interzonal, 09.11.1970. "November 9, 1970. Play at the Interzonal, Palma de Mallorca has just begun.
The tournament hall is abuzz with excitement. Robert James Fischer, the
American champion, has once again staked his claim at the World Championship
cycle. After his resounding defeat of Petrosian in the Match of the
Century (3:1) and victories at the Rovinj–Zagreb and Buenos Aires
events ahead of the Soviet GMs, there has been no looking back for Fischer.
His first round opponent is a slim bespectacled player, Robert Huebner
from Cologne, West Germany. His shy and serious demeanor betrays
no sign of being intimidated by his formidable rival. The game
takes a dramatic course, with Fischer blundering away a piece in the
later middle game. It is drawn only after a dynamically balanced
position is reached. The rest is history. Fischer won the
First Prize at the Interzonal and beat Taimanov (6-0!),
Larsen (6-0 again!) and Petrosian (6.5-3.5) in the Candidates’ Matches.
Soon after he won the World Championship after beating Spassky in what was
billed as The Match of The Century. The rise of his young
opponent Huebner was less spectacular..."
World Champion Fischer (CD) |
(9/30) Chess Composition: Half-Pin
by FIDE Master of Problem Composition Peter Wong (Peter's
Problem World - An Introduction to the Art of Chess Composition).
|
"The half-pin
is an enduring problem idea that dates back to the 19th century.
The set-up of this theme
consists of two black pieces standing on a line between the black king
and a long-range white piece. When either of the black pieces moves
off the line, the remaining piece becomes fully pinned. This
immobilisation is then exploited by White who delivers a pin-mate,
i.e. a mate that is dependent on the pin of one of the defending
pieces.
To be complete, a half-pin must
involve the immobilisation of both black pieces in separate variations.
Such a reciprocal relationship between the two pieces ensures that the
variations are linked harmoniously..." |
|
|
|
 (9/30)
Annotated Games: These games have been excerpted from Prof.
Nagesh Havanur's review of
World Champion Fischer (CD). "November 9, 1970. Play at the Interzonal, Palma de Mallorca has just begun.
The tournament hall is abuzz with excitement. Robert James Fischer, the
American champion, has once again staked his claim at the World Championship
cycle. After his resounding defeat of Petrosian in the Match of the
Century (3:1) and victories at the Rovinj –Zagreb and Buenos Aires
events ahead of the Soviet GMs, there has been no looking back for Fischer."
|
(9/30) Chess Fiction:
The Great Raccoon Hunt,
by P.D. Fawcett (also known as The Hawk). The Hawk on The Hawk:
"My stories are based 'loosely' on my own experiences & have a ring of truth
to the events I write about. The characters are in fact real people,
but their names have been changed to protect the innocent..."
(9/29)
Nuestro Círculo #269:
29 de septiembre de 2007, dedicado al Maestro Internacional húngaro Tibor
Florian (1919-1990). Además de su biografía, publicamos todas las partidas
de las rondas 7 a 11 del Campeonato Mundial México 2007 que está encabezando
el GM indio Viswanathan Anand cuando sólo faltan 3 rondas para consagrar al
campéon del mundo. Te invitamos a leer su biografía y las notas "Ajedrez popular",
"Partidas amenas" y "Andrés Palu: 8 años".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
 (9/23)
Chessville Vignettes: If
You Must Meet Arnold Denker, a remembrance by Larry
Parr. Denker, former US Champion, and once among the top-20
players in the world, about whom Al Horowitz once wrote, "He
can handle an attack with a fertility of ideas and richness of imagination
that are rare." The
author, Larry Parr is currently living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is the
collaborator with Dato' Tan Chin Nam on the memoir, Never Say I Assume!
(MPH Publishing, 2006). Another
Chessville Vignette! "My
first meeting with Arnold Denker back in 1983 was simultaneously exciting
and deflating. We ended up getting along fabulously. Arnold was
visiting Seattle, Washington, with his beautiful wife Nina, who had done
radio and movie work in the 1930s and 40s. Robert Karch, a local chess
organizer and a future USCF secretary, asked if I wished to meet the great
man, and I reverentially toted along my copy of If You Must Play
Chess, his book of best games published in 1947. “What’s this?
A British edition?” Arnold asked in booming Noi Yawkese as he autographed
the book without my asking. “They never told me about it. I’ll have
to ask them for royalties.” All of this, and we had not yet said hello,
though he had slapped me on the back with the force of someone who had once
been a boxer and a fight manager..." |
(9/23) Chess
Quotations: A fresh batch of quotations, from Quotemaster
Kelly! That's our Forum Host, Kelly Atkins, who collected and
organized our original quote collection, back at it again, with another look
into the sound-bite world of chess. Enjoy! "Chess is my
world. Not a house, nor a castle where I can hide from life's
troubles, but precisely a world. A world where I can express myself."
– Mikhail Tal
(9/22)
Nuestro Círculo
#268: 22 de septiembre de
2007, dedicado al Gran Maestro ruso Vladimir P. Simagin (1919/1968).
Te invitamos a leer su biografía y las notas "¿Ajedrez=aburrido?", "Lara
Stock GMF" y "Mundial Méjico 2007".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez
editado en Argentina en lenguaje español.
|
(9/22)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to
the weekly leader of chess events around the world. This week: |
 |
Players
Corner:
This week: an unusual
Sicilian when, instead
of the usual pawn gambit, the Queen is offered up in payment in
this Alapin
variation.
|
.jpg) |
 |
Karpov: "I am not in favour of
children having to study chess during the whole period of the school
education. It is difficult to be forced to study this game..." |
 |
Fritz/Rybka play the "Game of the Century" Byrne-Fischer
EXACTLY like RJF did. Amazing and Greetings from Amsterdam.
Albert H. Alberts, author of
How to Fool Fritz |
|
(9/22)
Chess Cartoon: by Randall
Munroe, of the website xkcd. Just click on the link - and enjoy!
 (9/16)
Chess History:
Lord Dunsany - Master of Pen
and Sword. A brand new
Past Pawns article by Robert
Tuohey. "Merely being christened Edward John Moreton Drax
Plunkett, would seem, if not actually to augur, at least to foreshadow, a
life of some importance. In the present case, however, Fate triple-guarded
herself: the appellation rang with dignity, the family background was
illustrious, and, most importantly, the child so-named
 was
possessed of many exceptional qualities (note 1). The father, John
William Plunkett (17th Lord of Dunsany), was a descendant of one
of Ireland’s most distinguished families (first official record of this
hereditary title is 1190). The 17th Lord was, as his son was to
be, a man of many parts: politician, mechanical engineer, scholar, and
sportsman. The mother, Ernle Grosvenor, was from a well-established English
family. The couple was married in 1877, and roughly one year later, July 24,
1878, were blessed with the aforementioned son..." |
(9/16)
Chess Fiction: The
Three Sailors' Gambit by Lord Dunsany. "Sitting some years
ago in the ancient tavern at Over, one afternoon in Spring, I was waiting,
as was my custom, for something strange to happen. In this I was not
always disappointed for the very curious leaded panes of that tavern, facing
the sea, let a light into the low-ceilinged room so mysterious, particularly
at evening, that it somehow seemed to affect the events within. Be
that as it may, I have seen strange things in that tavern and heard stranger
things told..." This story, originally published in 1916, was
excerpted from Robert Tuohey's
Lord Dunsany: Master of Pen and Sword.
 (9/16) Review:
Play the Nimzo-Indian
by IM Edward Dearing, reviewed by NM Bill McGeary. "The
Nimzo Indian has been a standard for players of all strengths since the time
of its namesake, Aron Nimzovich. There can hardly be a better
endorsement than the fact that every world champion since Capablanca has had
the Nimzo in his repertoire. The appeal of the Nimzo is its greatest
strength, its flexibility. Sorting through the vast cornucopia of
variations in the mainline Rubinstein variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4
4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 c5 6.Nf3 d5 7.0-0 Nc6 - diagram) was a chore that few
amateurs would relish. Still, becoming bogged down in one variation or
branch of the opening would be to deny that strength we know - flexibility.
Books on the Nimzo have generally been overviews of the morass which defines
the opening as a whole. Only a couple of authors had attempted to
write "repertoire" books on the Nimzo, and those authors didn't receive the
praise due them. So when I saw that a new book "Play the Nimzo
Indian" was out, I expected another compendium of material that was only
useful when I played somebody else who had read the book. Instead, I
was surprised, delighted and wrong. Dearing has gone quite a
long distance in writing this book..." |
 (9/16)
The Parrot's Rare
Chess Picture Collection: Beginning with his July 22, 2006
column The Parrot has provided the chess world with "Rare Chess Pictures"
each week. Today we present the first photo album from this amazing
and absorbing panoply of images and ideas from the world of chess.
Pages may take a while to load - your patience shall be rewarded though with
a wonderful assortment of images. Pictured are such luminaries as
Capablanca, Fischer, Larsen, and others including Che Guevara, Tom Hanks,
even Alekhine's police-"death photo" There's even a photo of The
Parrot his-self. Enjoy all 35 images in this initial collection of
The Parrot's Rare Chess
Pictures - Album 1! |
 (9/16)
Chess Training: A new "Recon64" Move Prediction Exercise from Jim Mitch (aka Prof. Chester Nuhmentz.)
Today's game is that featured in September's
Chess-Vision exercise, from the
famous St. Petersburg tournament of 1914.
Emmanuel Lasker develops positional
advantages and controls the initiative in
this game, restricting Jose Capablanca to an
uncomfortably defensive role. Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type
chess exercises, Recon64 challenges players to
find candidate moves from games played by
masters. Players are encouraged to search
for several strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as
long as their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during
the game. As an extra twist, players
invest Recon64 dollars on candidate moves based
on how likely they think each move was used in
the original game. |
(9/15)
Nuestro Círculo
#267: 15 de septiembre de
2007, que dedicamos al Gran Maestro húngaro Laszlo Szabo (1917/1998). Te
invitamos a leer su biografía y las notas "Aguafiestas", "La televisión
dinamita", "Kasparov opina", "Campeón argentino", "Campeonato Femenino 2007"
y "México 2007".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez
editado en Argentina en lenguaje español.
 (9/9)
Review: Discipline
by Paco Ahlgren, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Discipline concerns Douglas Cole, a young man who, as the book opens,
is living in Austin, Texas. He is clearly both on his way up - and on
his way down. His work side is in finance, trading futures,
which is a bit of an ironically-titled vocation, given that his play
side is a live-action depiction of the ravages of hard core drug abuse.
At one point he works on a software program to help him more effectively
analyze financial data and improve his money-making actions.
Predictably, he fares like Chess Challenger 7 in a match against
Kramnik...
In its unfolding Discipline investigates the concept of time (and
time travel) – “With the concept of time we have manufactured a monster”
– any chess player who has experienced zeitnot knows this woe
intimately. What would it take to go forward or backwards in time?
How do you prepare for the future when it’s already past? (Or as the
old t-shirt puts it: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a
banana.)
Connected to this is the notion of the “multiverse,” that for every choice a
person makes, there is an alternate universe where the person makes another
choice. (Imagine a universe where Bobby didn’t play 29…Bxh2 in his
first World Championship game with Spassky.) In that scenario we
quickly run up a whole lot of universes..." |
|
(9/9) Chess Composition:
Finales... y Temas #45 (septiembre
2007) Edited by GM José Copié of Argentina. This publication is
provided in PDF format, so if you do not already have it, you will need to
download the free PDF reader... GM Copié
lives in Buenos Aires, and is a Grandmaster of correspondence chess (ICCF) and also a chess
historian.
 This Argentine publication, widely
distributed in PDF format and through many chess pages, offers us high
quality articles and surprising studies we are sure will entertain our
readers, while teaching them valuable endgame skills in the bargain.
Don't read Spanish? ¡No problemo! Finales... y Temas
utilizes figurine algebraic notation (FAN). |
 Esta publicación argentina, ampliamente
distribuida tanto en formato PDF como por numerosas páginas web, nos
ofrece artículos de alta calidad además de estudios sorprendentes que,
estamos seguros, encantarán a nuestros lectores. |
Es una publicación de circulación gratuita para los cultores del noble arte
ajedrecístico.
PROHIBIDA SU VENTA. Editor: José A. Copié,
San Nicolás 3938, B 1665 GZJ José C. Paz, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA. Reprinting of (parts of all) this magazine is only permitted for non
commercial purposes and with acknowledgement of the Editor.
|
(9/8)
Nuestro Círculo #266:
8 de septiembre de 2007, dedicado al Maestro estadounidense Arnold S.Denker
(1914/2005). Te invitamos a leer su biografía y las notas "Ajedrez popular",
"Partidas amenas" y "Andrés Palu: 8 años".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
|
(9/2) Allumwandlung!
- Continuing our introduction to the art of chess composition, we
present Allumwandlung! by FIDE Master of Chess Composition Peter
Wong, the latest offering in Peter's
Problem World.
"The problemist’s vocabulary, like the
player’s, includes the occasional foreign term, and a prominent
example is
Allumwandlung. This German word,
usually abbreviated as AUW, means “total promotion.” It
describes a problem in which the four possible types of promotion – to
queen, rook, bishop, and knight – all take place during the course of
the solution. The promotions may be made by a single pawn in
different lines of play, or they may be divided among a number of
pawns..." |
|
|
 (9/2) Review:
The Immortal Game, A History of
Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of
War, Art, Science and the Human Brain, by David Shenk (Doubleday,
2007), reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "One day, my dad was
talking to me about the art of writing. “ ‘A boy walked down the road’
” he said. “Now, a good writer can make that really interesting.”
David Shenk is a good writer. In The Immortal Game he tells
story after story. About chess. And he really makes them
interesting. Not just to chess players, mind you. To those
who don’t play chess – and who wonder why others do. That kind of a
writer: 'Large rocks, severed heads, and flaming pots of oil rained
down on Baghdad, capital of the vast Islamic Empire, as its weary defenders
scrambled to reinforce gates, ditches, and the massive stone walls
surrounding the fortress city’s many brick and teak palaces. Giant
wooden manjaniq catapults bombarded distant structures while the smaller,
more precise arradah catapult guns pelted individuals with grapefruit-sized
rocks…' That’s just the Introduction..." |
 (9/2) Review:
Play the Ruy
Lopez:
A Complete
Repertoire in a Famous Opening by Andrew Greet (Everyman Chess, 2007), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"Tradition
is a word that does not get used in chess very much. Tradition seems to be
limited to types of events or certain rituals. The annual Cambridge vs.
Oxford match is certainly a tradition, the German Bundesleague is a
tradition, and while the annual Melody Amber tournament holds a great
fascination for chess enthusiasts it has little in terms of tradition over
the annual tournament at Hastings... There is another chess tradition
that has developed in the last 30 years. Though relatively unnoticed, books
on the Ruy Lopez (Spanish game) from Great Britain has become something of a
standard. Starting with The Ruy Lopez: Winning Chess with 1. P-K4 by
Leonard Barden in 1971 the amount of high quality material coming from
England on the Ruy is amazing... Now, a new work has appeared from a new
author..." |
|
(9/2) Chess Training:
Jim Mitch's newest Chess Vision exercise, designed to sharpen your
vision of the board. In this exercise, players try to
imagine up to 10 moves being made from a
starting diagram, with the goal of finding all
the legal captures and checks that could be made
in the envisioned position. You decide how far to look
ahead (from one to ten half-moves) and how
much time to allow yourself (from 30 seconds to
10 minutes.) You can even choose the
starting position from that month's game...
|
The September exercise for
visitors from Chessville is from the famous St.
Petersburg tournament of 1914.
|
Emmanuel Lasker develops positional advantages
and controls the initiative in this game,
restricting Jose Capablanca to an uncomfortably
defensive role.
 |
|
 |
Created by
Professor Chester Nuhmentz
Chess-Vision
A new game every month!
|
Jim Mitch, Ph.D.
aka Prof. Chester Nuhmentz |
|
|
 (9/1)
Chess Engine Update: Clyde
Nakamura provides short descriptions and links to more than a dozen
different mostly free chess engines, and describes how he uses them in his
writing and research. Writes Clyde, "Although
my specialty has been unorthodox chess openings, I use the various strong
computer chess engines to test my unorthodox chess openings. We live in an
age where computers have become an important part of everyday life and also
an important part of chess. Since 1985 I realized that I would be left
behind in life if I was not literate in the usage of computers..."
|
|
(9/1)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world. This
week: |
Funniest Find
of the Week |
Players Corner:
This week:
the disconcerting
Benko Gambit.
|
|
 |
Now Hiring: Would
you like to hear about a fabulously well-paid job in chess that you
can do at home, replete with prestige, national awards, and all for
very little effort? |
 |
"Dear
Parrot,
I never met Bobby Fischer, but I did get an email from him in
2001..." |
|
(9/1)
Nuestro Círculo #265:
1 de septiembre de 2007, dedicado al Mto. Ilmar Raud que nació en
Estonia en 1913 y murió en Buenos Aires en 1941, poco después de participar
en el Torneo de las Naciones de Buenos Aires 1939.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
 (8/26)
Review: Actually an
Excerpt from Black is OK Forever! by IGM András
ADORJÁN. "When I
meet my Lord, I will ask Him why He chose me to discover the theorem that is
to renew the whole science of chess: BLACK IS OK!? And why did so many
wonderful chess thinkers simply pass by it? After all, it could even
have been discovered from sheer practical need, asking an obvious question:
‘Is it OK that BLACK is beaten so badly?’ Shouldn’t we do something
against it? Not just sheepishly wait for tomorrow’s White game?
White to move and BLACK to
suffer!?
Only collective intellectual laziness could raise an
empty dogma
like this to the level of axiom!
People do sometimes get knocked out by diseases, sorrows, all kinds of
hardships. We must simply endure it. But the fact that tens of
millions only want to somehow ’survive’ EVERY SECOND DAY is – forgive me -
INSTITUTIONALISED IDIOCY. The FIDE K.O.
World Championship final of 2004 saw White beat BLACK 4-0 in
serious games (with 2 draws).
IS IT NORMAL?? Well, if it is, then I am an idiot. (Which
I may be, but not because of this.) The
CONSCIOUS research I’ve been doing since the year 1985 (before that, I had
produced a ’plus’ score with BLACK simply INSTINCTIVELY) failed to reveal
any strictly chess-related arguments for ANY initial advantage for White.
The only exception is that the ’first’ player can play for a draw
more easily than BLACK.
All the other obvious arguments can be easily neutralised, even refuted..." |
|
 (8/26)
Unorthodox Chess Openings: The Zaire
is Clyde Nakamura's latest in his never-ending
Search for Dragons and Mythical Chess Openings.
|
Possible starting position
from the black side. |
"The opening known as The Zaire
can be played from both the White side or the Black side. Basically
to play the Zaire you move both your knights out and move both of them
back to their original squares. You can move one knight out and
retreat it and then move the other knight out also retreat it or you
can move both knights out and retreat each knight one at a time. You
are actually spotting your opponent 4 moves. Some players are
actually insulted if you play the Zaire against them. 1.e4
Nf6 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 Ng8 4.Bc4 Nb8..." |
|
|
 (8/26)
Review:
Caro-Kann Defence: Panov Attack by Anatoly Karpov & Mikhail Podgaets (Batsford,
2006), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary. "The Panov Botvinnik attack has a uniquely
important place in chess lore. After Capablanca adopted the Caro Kann, it
assumed a status as the solid way for Black to escape attacking efforts of
e4-players. No more gambits or attacks, just simple solid play in the
center. This was the last nail in the coffin of the "Romantic" age of
chess. Panov was a Soviet master and theoretician, who took a different
view of this situation and decided to test Black's mettle with the direct
action of 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4. Botvinnik picked up on this and quickly formed
it into a most dangerous weapon. In the decades that have followed the
Panov-Botvinnik Attack has remained the choice of determined king pawn
players, despite the efforts of GM's and World Champions alike..."
|
|
(8/25)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world.
Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on
this week’s news where selected letters will be featured.
This week: Kosteniuk, Adorján, Kritz, Nakamura,
Bartholomew, Hess, Lenderman, Banawa, Fritz-10,
Adorján’s
Gambit – E60, Kramnik, Prasath, China
vs Russia, Adams, and Giddin.
TheParrot Squaawks about
Pravda, Gravel, and Sobkowski.
|
|
(8/25)
Nuestro Círculo #264:
25 de agosto de 2007, dedicado al Mto. húngaro Gedeon Barcza
(1911-1986). Publicamos su biografía y las notas "Bobby Fischer II", "ganó
Kortchnoi" y "El aguafiestas."
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
 (8/20)
Update: 5th Holly
Heisman Memorial Tournament Report. NM Dan Heisman has sent us
this update, listing not only the chess winners, but the amount of funds
raised for other winners who need a hand up. Holly, you may remember,
was “Susan Hollis
“Holly” Bloom Heisman (1953-1994) Dan's first wife, who passed away
from breast cancer. Holly worked as a social worker, helping women in
need such as runaway teenagers and battered wives. This event helps
raise funds and awareness to support the Holly Heisman foundation,
established in 1995. However, Dan writes, "The future of this event is
not certain..." |
|
 (8/19)
Review:
Mastering the
Chess Openings Volume 1 & 2 by IM John Watson (Gambit, 2006 and
2007), reviewed by
S. Evan Krieder. "Good stuff, and at just the right level for an
instructional manual for up and coming players.
The only weak spot is the introductory material to volume one, which feels
far too basic for the intended audience – if you don’t know that the center
is important in the opening, then you probably aren’t ready to read these
books. If you are ready for them, let me give you a couple of pieces
of advice. First, buy both volumes, whether or not you think you need
them. Even if you only play openings that are all covered in one volume,
the whole point of these books is that common open ideas can be found across
a variety of specific openings. Thus, everything you study in these two
volumes with increase your understanding of opening play, no matter what
specific openings you play. Second, be prepared to spend some serious time
with these books. Although they are fun to browse through, they are meant
as instructional manuals..."
|
 (8/19)
Review: Why Lasker Matters by
GM Andrew Soltis, reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. "This book has received both bouquets and brickbats
from reviewers. A major point of criticism is that it fails to answer
the question why Lasker matters. This is rather strange as in the
Introduction the author takes pains to point out the relevance of
Lasker’s play today...The one person who could unravel the mystery of Emanuel Lasker was Emanuel
Lasker. But unlike Steinitz and others of his era, who kept few
secrets, Lasker said little about his chess instincts and often seemed to
be trying to mislead his opponents. In one of his articles he had this to
say: “About my style very much has been written, comprehensible and
incomprehensible, deep and superficial, praise and criticism. And
after being silent on this question for a long time, I wish to speak about
itself.” He then went on, in the Soviet Yearbook for
1932-35, to say his talent lies in the sphere of combinations”(!)
Considering how rarely he combined, this must be one of his final jokes upon
the chess world..." |
 (8/19)
Chess Training: A new "Recon64" Move Prediction Exercise from Jim Mitch (aka Prof. Chester Nuhmentz.)
Today's game is that featured in August's
Chess-Vision exercise, a 1987
classic between Mikhail Tal and Johann Hjartarson.
While facing mate-in-one himself, Tal
executes a fantastic combination to win! Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type
chess exercises, Recon64 challenges players to
find candidate moves from games played by
masters. Players are encouraged to search
for several strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as
long as their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during
the game. As an extra twist, players
invest Recon64 dollars on candidate moves based
on how likely they think each move was used in
the original game. |
(8/19)
Annotated Game: Prof. Nagesh Havanur provides the notes to a
classic encounter between two chess giants: Emmanuel Lasker vs Alexander
Alekhine, St. Petersburg 1914. This game has been excerpted from
Prof. Havanur's review of Why
Lasker Matters.
(8/19)
Annotated Game: Another excellent game excerpted from the
Professor's review of Why Lasker
Matters. This time he brings us the game Kan-Lasker, Moscow
1935. This game too has been excerpted from Prof. Havanur's review
of Why Lasker Matters.
(8/18)
Nuestro Círculo #263:
18 de agosto de 2007, esta vez dedicado al Maestro Internacional y
extraordinario compositor de Finales de Estudio, Genrij Moiseevich
Kasparian (1910-1995). Además de su biografía, publicamos "42
respuestas", "el Aguafiestas 211" y una nota sobre Bobby Fischer que este
año cumplió 64 años de vida, tanto como las casillas de un tablero de
ajedrez.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
(8/12) Chess Instruction:
The World Open 'Knights'
in Valley Forge and a little bit of Shakespeare by IM Igor
Khmelnitsky. "In early July, 2007, the
35th World Open
(projected prize fund of $400,000) was going full speed in the Valley Forge
Convention Center (20 minutes drive from downtown Philadelphia).
Thanks to the short commute, I visited the event almost every day, checking
on my friends as well as my students. Also, spending time with the
always busy dealers (Rochester Chess Center and Chess4Less); the store was
packed with newest as well as rare chess stuff. And, of course, I
mingled with readers of
my books. I even played in a side event. The World Open will
be covered in depth in many chess media outlets. I’d like to share
with you here a few interesting positions that I spotted scanning the boards
and the common theme of them is the actions of the Knights..." |
 (8/12)
Review: Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng,
reviewed by NM Bill McGeary. "Chess is a complex game, I doubt there is much of an argument about that. I
have less certainty as to whether we play because of that complexity or in
spite of it. Progressing
through chess is a tidal effect of emotion as we improve and find
accomplishment, then run into barriers that cause us to feel failure. The
complexity is more than just a puzzle that perplexes us until we find a
solution that turns out to be fairly simple. Yes, we have all found those
kinds of situations in chess, the solution seems simple once we know it.
Yet, the maze of chess is not solved with a simple algorithm of any sort, at
least not for humans....This
book presents 600 "problems" that could potentially fall into any category.
There aren't any groupings or specific arrangement to the problems, endgames
in with tactics in with defense and even opening positions. This is
quite a good idea as it introduces the bite of uncertainty to solving the
problems..." |
(8/12)
Annotated Game:
licenser-kreider204, Itsyourturn.com, March 2007. This game
was played at ItsYourTurn, a turn-based chess server that notifies you via
email when it's your turn to move. (Duh!) The annotations are
from each of us, identified as either EK for Evan Kreider (aka kreider204),
or DS for David Surratt (aka licenser.) We wrote our annotations
independently of each other, and then combined them below. A few
post-analysis comments are identified as so where indicated. We
welcome further comments from anyone about the game or the annotations.
Evan was aided in his post-game analysis by Shredder 10, I by Fritz 8.
Enjoy!
 (8/10)
Chess, Art and Barry
Martin: GM Raymond Keene, OBE, (Keene
On Chess) with his latest offering - a look at his co-founder of the
annual Staunton Memorial Chess Tournament, Barry Martin. "Many artists
have explored chess since its inception around two thousand years ago, but
of these Barry Martin has been the most consistent, the most dedicated, the
most inventive and, pace Marcel Duchamp, perhaps the most important.
Chess, with its assorted emblematic military and hierarchical forces and the
endless complexity and profundity of its variations, offers a symbol of the
universe and its infinite powers, extent and laws. The symbolism emerges on
many levels; that of destruction, creation, termination, rebirth and
resurrection (as Martin has emphasized again and again with his references
to the regenerative
 symbiosis of the pawn and its ability to transmute to a
queen-see later in this chapter) not to mention in the venerable canon
of chessboard-related symbolic richness: balance, harmony, the evident
tension between black and white, the opposites of night and day as well as
perpetual conflict, yet tempered by the ever present possibility
of reconciliation in the outcome of a drawn game. In chess
one detects an imperative towards meditation, yet also a yearning for risk
and mystery. In Martin's portrait of former world champion Garry
Kasparov, commissioned by The Times, of which more later, the player at the
board about to execute his move becomes more than this, a rough beast, full
of violence and hatred, an icon of will, a ruthless mafia boss (we need for
this element of the interpretation to know that Kasparov's favourite opening
is the Sicilian defence) indeed - on many levels - a killer. It was no
accident that this image of Martin's, one might almost call it a vision, was
chosen by Lord Hardinge's chess publishing firm to adorn the front cover of
my book on Kasparov's use of the Sicilian defence..." |
(8/11)
Nuestro Círculo #262:
11 de agosto de 2007,
que dedicamos al Gran Maestro
Internacional estoniano Vladas Ivanovich Mikenas (1910-1992).
Publicamos su biografía y partidas, además de las notas "42 preguntas" de
Ricardo Calvo y "Torneo Biel Sui 2007".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
|
 |
(8/5) Chess News:
International Scholastic Chess Convention, scheduled for
January 6-15, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. The International
Scholastic Chess Convention will be organized by the International
Educational and Cultural Services, Inc., a 501-c3 non-profit
organization that established the Chess for Peace program in 2005.
"The vision of the initiative is to establish long-term
relationships between the young people around the globe by using chess
as the vehicle by which to promote mutual understanding of shared
problems. In addition, we expect these relationships to add to
the students’ general educational knowledge as well as helping the
participants to foster a better understanding of their world..." |
|
 (8/5)
Review:
Beating the
King's Indian and Grünfeld by IM Timothy Taylor (Everyman, 2006)
reviewed by
Michael Jeffreys. "If having two center pawns abreast is good, than what about three? And
if three is even better than two, than why not set up a wall of four pawns
that attack six of the eight squares on your opponent’s fourth rank!?
If hyper-modernism is one extreme (not bothering with the center until after
castling), than some might consider this classical chess run amuck!
Of course, setting up “the Rock of Gibraltar” and then daring your opponent
to knock it down is certainly not for every chess player. Knowing how to
support the wall of pawns can often be a tricky business if one doesn’t know
what he or she is doing.
This is where IM Tim Taylor comes in as he attempts to teach you the ins and
outs of the “four pawns attack” in his latest book, Beating the King’s
Indian and Grünfeld..." |
(8/5) Annotated Game: NM Bill McGeary
annotates the game
Siegmund-Horvath,
Feffernitz Raika Open 1998, a game which - among other things -
illustrates the correct way to play with a good knight vs. a bad bishop.
"As newer players (some younger than others) we are told that the best way
to learn is to study games, particularly games by stronger players. I
won't argue with that, though playing games would be a very good second step
in my opinion, because as players we are interested in "re-inventing the
wheel" as much as we want to know how the wheel works. So, how much
can we learn from one game? Of course, that depends on the game.
Or maybe, it depends on us..."
|
(8/5)
Chess
Training: Jim Mitch (aka
Professor Chester Nuhmentz) presents the August
Chess
Vision exercise:
The exercise this month for visitors from Chessville features one of the
finest performances of "The Magician from Riga", Mikhail Tal. While facing mate-in-one
himself, Tal executes a fantastic combination to
defeat Johann Hjartarson in this 1987 classic.
|
|
Created by
Professor
Chester
Nuhmentz
|
|
 |
(8/4)
Nuestro Círculo #261:
4 de agosto de 2007, que dedicamos a la ajedrecista argentina Marina A.
Rizzo (W.F.M.). Publicamos un reportaje a la misma, nota del M.I.
Raúl Ocampo Vargas y una semblanza de este semanario al cumplir su quinto
año de vida.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
|
(8/4)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world.
Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on
this week’s news where selected letters will be featured.
This week: Denker & Polgar - Warren & Kerr. MonRoi &
Cramling, Empresa & Ivanchuk.
TheParrot Squaawks about some core chess
services which need fixing up if USCF is to stop the decline in
membership.
|
|
 (7/30)
The Staunton Memorial 2007:
GM Raymond Keene's (Keene On
Chess) latest article includes two annotated games: Howell-Levitt, from
the 2005 Memorial which clinched the award of the celebrated Sobkowski chess
set to grandmaster Jon Levitt. The second game was annotated by the
winner, Commonwealth Grandmaster Lawrence Day, and features his win,
coincidentally also against young David Howell in the 2005 memorial, and
features the Pterodactyl Defence (1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.dxc5 Bxc3+.)
"Howard Staunton was the Victorian polymath who became unofficial world
champion in chess, as well as writing the history of the British Public
School system and producing a collector’s item edition of the works of
Shakespeare. For the past four years a Staunton Memorial tournament
has been held at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London, and this year’s event
featuring Michael Adams and Jan Timman is the strongest event of its kind in
London for over 20 years..." |
 (7/29)
Review:
Play the Caro-Kann:
A complete chess opening repertoire against 1 e4 by IM Jovanka Houska
(Everyman Chess, 2007), reviewed
by S. Evan Kreider. "The Caro-Kann has been my main defense against 1.e4 for about ten years now,
but I have to be honest – I was thinking of giving it up. It served me well
as I was coming up the ranks, but as I started to come up against stronger
opponents, I started feeling that it was a bit too passive and much easier
for White to play than it was for Black. I dabbled a bit in the Sicilian
and the Open Games for a while, but neither made me totally happy, so I
wasn’t
 sure what to do.
Then I recalled some advice...
A quick glance through the book would tell most club players all they need
to know. The text is an excellent mix of explanation and theory. For the
latter, there’s more than enough material here to cover almost anything that
a Caro-Kann player could reasonably expect to encounter, whether playing
over-the-board or correspondence-style. For the former, the explanations
are thorough and detailed, and written at a level that would be helpful for
lower class players and those just taking up the Caro-Kann for the first
time, as well as more experienced Caro-Kann players, such as myself – some
of it was familiar ground, but there were quite a few instructional points
that I found downright eye-opening. However, what most attracts me to this
book is the choice of repertoire lines, so let’s take a look at some of
them..." |
(7/29)
Chess Fiction: Oh,
Heck... From master story teller Rick Kennedy comes
another
Kennedy
Kids
adventure. “Matt?” I shook my sleeping big brother.
“Matt!” “Wha….?” he said, not quite awake. “What’s up??”
He propped his head up with one arm. The clock in his bedroom said
2:26. “Nightmare” I told him. “Scary?” “Very!” I
rubbed my eyes. Must have been the sleep in them. “Talk to
Mom?” “I tried. When I told her it had Mr. Scratch in
it, she said to get some calamine lotion. Then she rolled over.
I’m not sure she was ever really awake...”
(7/29) Chess Composition:
Battery Play - FIDE Master of Chess Composition Peter
Wong's latest installment in his introduction to the art of chess
composition, Peter's Problem World.
|
"A battery is an arrangement of two pieces capable of giving a
discovered attack. The two pieces stand in line with their target,
usually the opposing king; when the front piece moves off the line so
that the rear piece attacks the king, the battery is said to be opened
or “fired”.
The battery is an often-seen device and it sometimes appears as an
incidental feature of a problem. Here we will look at six
compositions where the main thematic play does center on the
batteries..."
Read the entire article:
Battery Play |
|
|
(7/29)
Nuestro Círculo #260:
28 de julio de 2007, dedicado al maestro estadounidense Arthur William
Dake (1910-2000). Publicamos su biografía y notas de Leonardo
Lipiniks, Jorge A.Rubinetti, Eduardo Iacobacci y Noticias de "Chessbase".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
|
(7/28)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world.
Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on
this week’s news where selected letters will be featured.
This week: Houska, Tiviakov, Pogonina, and Carlsen.
Polgar, Bauer, Truong, and Berry.
TheParrot Squaawks about
How to Lose an Election,
and Now What?
|
|
|
"Black’s pawns on c5 and e5 (the so-called Maroczy Bind)
give him a pleasant space advantage, but White is well developed and his
last move threatens to destroy Black's queenside structure with Nd4.
Watch how Black effectively clears the h1-a8 diagonal..."
|
|
(7/22)
Clubbed: GM Ray Keene's
latest column (Keene On Chess) looks at
chess club life in London, and includes the annotated game Tweedie-Waites from the
match between the Reform Club v MCC on March 27th 2007. "A chess club is a club where people play
chess. A London club is an exclusive establishment, often owning it's
prestige premises in the centre of town. Former members probably
included people like Charles Dickens, Sir Winston Churchill and Benjamin
Disraeli. London clubs often have their own chess circles. Chess
in London club-land is thriving and has done for many years. Club
teams compete for the Hamilton Russell Trophy, a silver version of the solid
gold Hamilton Russell Cup which is awarded to the victors of the biennial
World Chess Olympiad. The leading lights of the chess scene are the RAC, the Athenaeum and the Oxford and Cambridge club, but the East India,
Chelsea Arts, Hurlingham and so on also make their mark..." |
 (7/22)
Review:
Beating Unusual Chess Openings by
IM Richard Palliser (Everyman Chess, 2007), reviewed by Rick Kennedy.
"You’re headed off to the Club tournament. You’ve got your
defense to 1.e4. You’ve got your defense to 1.d4. You’re ready
to kick pawns and take names. Round one you draw the black pieces, and
your opponent opens with 1.c4. Oops. You try to treat it as some
kind of reversed Sicilian Defense (which you don’t play) but you fall hard.
Round two you open with 1.e4 and face 1…e6. Ha! You know the
French Defense. You play the French Defense! Of course,
it’s kind of playing against yourself in this game, so the drawn
result doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. Tastes like cold
oatmeal though. Next round you’ve got black and you’re wondering
“Classical? Steinitz? Advance Variation?” against 1.e4 and maybe
you’re thinking that if you see 1.d4, instead, you’ll get to play your
favorite Queen’s Gambit Accepted. It doesn’t matter: your opponent
starts out with 1.Nf3. Transposing this way and that doesn’t help.
You always thought the King’s Indian was a Defense, not an Attack!
There’s that sudden sinking feeling that goes down the drain with your game.
For “fun” you then open up the penultimate round with 1.d4 and use
everything you know about the QGA – to nail down another draw. Sigh.
Small surprise that in the last round you go down in flames against 1.g4…
Why bother to prepare your favorite defenses, if you don’t get to play them?
Sound familiar? If so, International Master Richard Palliser feels
your pain..." |
 (7/22)
Review:
Understanding the
King's Indian by Mikhail Golubev (Gambit, 2006), reviewed by NM Bill McGeary.
"The rise in
popularity of the King's Indian Defense since 1980 shines brightly, like the
rise of the ascending Phoenix. I remember annotations to KI games in the
1979-82 period suggesting the KI was buried as well as a conversation with
a master who was utterly astonished that I would "dare" to play the KI! My
feeling is that the increase in appreciation is due to the intervention of
dynamic imaginative players like Nunn, Glek, and of course Kasparov. The
increase in fascination with the defense is shown by the sheer number of
volumes devoted to the KI in that period of time. A simple example
would be the three
 books
currently out on the 4-pawns attack, a line not always considered a "main" weapon
against the KI. Also of interest, the playing strength of authors writing
books about the KI; Geller and Gufeld would be legends in any frame of
reference and Gallagher is a GM whose play is worth following. Mikhail
Golubev, a strong Ukrainian GM, adds his name to the roll. Immediately in
the introduction Golubev delivers his business card that shows he is a
worthy standard bearer for KI players..." |
|
(7/21)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world.
Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on
this week’s news where selected letters will be featured.
This week: Krush crushes; Vicary victorious.
Caruana qualifies, Short short-circuits. Obama, Bu, Keene,
S.Polgar, J.Polgar, etc.
TheParrot presents a Guest
Squaawk from the Association of Chess Professionals: STOP
THE WAR ON OUR CHILDREN!
|
(7/21)
Nuestro Círculo #259:
21 de julio de 2007, dedicado al maestro soviético Vladimir A. Alatortsev
(1909-1987) . Publicamos en él su biografía y partidas además de las notas "Aguafiestas",
"Reconocimiento", "Pinturitas", "Cerebros en la TV" y "Televisión basura"
que esperamos sean de tu agrado.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
 (7/15)
Review:
The Best of
Chess Informant: Garry Kasparov
(CD)
reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. "Chess Informant has hit a jackpot with this CD. What can be more
enticing than a terrific collection of annotated Kasparov games for an avid
chess fan? Carping critics would complain that the entire CD is no
more than an assembly line job as the main database consists of 1193 games
published by the Chess Informant itself over the years. But if one
takes into account the fact that at least half of the games were published
in the pre-computer era, conversion of the published matter over a span of
nearly three decades (1976-2005) into electronic data has been no mean task.
The CD opens with a preface by Kasparov himself in which he pays a handsome
tribute to the Publishers, “We are all children of The Informant.”
This is followed by the biographical record with match & tournament
cross-tables. There is at least one glaring omission here..." |
 (7/15)
Review: One Move at a Time: How to Play and Win at
Chess and Life by Orrin Hudson (10 Finger Press, 2007), reviewed by Rick
Kennedy. "Orrin C. Hudson is a chess player and chess teacher,
but he’s also an accomplished motivational speaker. Swing by the web
page of his Be Someone program (based in Atlanta) website (www.besomeone.org)
which focuses on his programs promoting “Life skills through chess and
motivation.” It’s got information. It’s got videos. It
even has a theme song.
The Be Someone program is about chess, but also something deeper as well, as
shown in a quote by the author from an editorial review at Amazon of
Hudson’s earlier book, Think, Act and Be Someone:
"This is less about chess and more about
building character. Love, Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, Patience,
are 5
 character
traits that are essential to success. If we have the brightest
children in the world and they don't have character, the schools have failed
them and this nation has failed them… After all it is the moral
development of the whole child that will determine their success in life." The author attributes a significant part of his success in chess and in life
to his high school teacher, James Edge, who got him involved in the Royal
Game – “It was through his encouragement that I became the champion I am
today.” Mentors, take note..." |
 (7/15)
Annotated Game:
Beliavsky -
Kasparov, Belfort World Cup 1988. This game has been excerpted
from the review by Prof. Nagesh Havanur of
The Best of Chess Informant:
Garry Kasparov (CD). "What can one say about the games?
They are fabulous. As for the annotations, there is a certain degree
of difference between the annotations of the games in the pre-computer era
and what followed thereafter. As Kasparov himself would acknowledge,
the evaluation of earlier games is bound to change on account of computer
analysis. It is to his credit that most of his annotations are
vindicated by the silicon friend. A case in point is the following
game..." |
 (7/15)
Chess Training: A new "Recon64" Move Prediction Exercise from Jim Mitch (aka Prof. Chester Nuhmentz.)
Today's game is that featured in July's
Chess-Vision exercise, a game
between 1973 masterpiece between David
Bronstein and Ljubomir Ljubojevic, earned
Bronstein the First Brilliancy Prize for
this effort, in part for a rook sacrifice
that doesn't yield clear benefits until much
later in the game. Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type
chess exercises, Recon64 challenges players to
find candidate moves from games played by
masters. Players are encouraged to search
for several strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as
long as their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during
the game. As an extra twist, players
invest Recon64 dollars on candidate moves based
on how likely they think each move was used in
the original game. |
 (7/14) Review:
Secrets of
Practical Chess (New Enlarged Edition) by GM John Nunn (Gambit, 2007)
reviewed by Michael Jeffreys. "Back in 1998, GM John Nunn came out
with a slim 176 page book called Secrets of Practical Chess. It was
well received and covered a potpourri of topics...it can be argued that
studying this book will pay bigger dividends than studying just about any
other kind of chess books (tactics, positional play, endgames, etc.) because
Secrets of Practical Chess will help elevate your entire overall
game. ...Nunn’s writing is never trivial. His ideas and
suggestions come from years of experience and over-the-board practice at
grandmaster level. While, for example, Dvoretsky’s material is almost
always on the “heavy” side and some other GMs, such as Plaskett tend to
write in a somewhat trivial manner, it seems to me that Nunn strikes just
the right balance of depth and “readability.” This new “enlarged”
edition of Secrets of Practical Chess contains 80 new pages.
While the first edition came in at a svelte 176 pages, this one is a solid
256. Here are the contents..." |
(7/14)
Nuestro Círculo #258:
14 de julio de 2007, dedicado esta vez al Club Maestranza Central de San
Bernardo, Chile, que cumple en estos días 70 años de vida. Publicamos la
excelente nota de Omar Peluffo: "Recordando a Pelikán" y dos más: "Para
olvidar" y "Bellezas".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
|
(7/14)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world.
Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on
this week’s news where selected letters will be featured.
This week: China, Poland and Canada. Stolen Chronos!
And Chess-in-the-library.
The Parrot Squaawks about
"A Mission for USCF– or a New
National Chess Organization?
|
|
(7/11)
Addenda to Review:
The North Sea Variation of the Modern Defense, ECO B06 by Jim
Bickford, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. Reviewer Rick Kennedy has been
in correspondence with two of the recognized experts on the North Sea
Variation - Rolf Martens, early explorer of the North Sea (he first called
it the Horseshoe) and IM Gerard Welling. Kennedy writes, "Gerard knows
his unorthodox openings, and their histories. He also knows
GM Jonny Hector,
with whom he discussed the North Sea Defense, and who connected him with the
openings innovator Rolf Martens who had done early analysis on the line in
1983." Read the results of those exchanges at the bottom of the page!
|
(7/8) Review:
The North Sea
Variation of the Modern Defense, ECO B06 by Jim Bickford,
(Syzygy Publishing), reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "When I first saw
the North Sea Defense, it reminded me of the duckbill platypus.
You know, that animal that seemed to have been assembled from spare
parts?
1.e4 g6
Ah, the Modern Defense.
2.d4 Nf6
Perhaps an unusual form of the Alekhine Defense (1.e4 Nf6) ?
3. e5 Nh5
What's this?? What's that knight doing stuck out over there?
|
 |
|
Welcome, dear readers, to the North Sea Defense, a.k.a. the Norwegian
Defense... |
|
|
(7/8)
Chess Composition (en español): Finales...y Temas #44. Esta publicación argentina, ampliamente
distribuida tanto en formato PDF como por numerosas páginas web, nos
ofrece artículos de alta calidad además de estudios sorprendentes que,
estamos seguros, encantarán a nuestros lectores. Finales... y
Temas is
produced by GM Copié who
lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is a grandmaster of postal chess
(International Correspondence chess Federation, ICCF) and also a chess
historian.
This Argentine publication, widely
distributed in PDF format and through many chess pages, offers us high
quality articles and surprising studies we are sure will entertain our
readers, while teaching them valuable endgame skills in the bargain.
Don't read Spanish? ¡No problemo! Finales... y Temas
utilizes figurine algebraic notation (FAN). |
|
(7/8)
5th Holly Heisman Memorial Fundraiser Tournament: reported by Dan Heisman.
The Holly Heisman Fund is
a charitable trust at the Philadelphia Foundation (www.philafound.org)
to support women in need, specifically those with breast cancer, battered
wives, and runaway teens. Established in 1995, over the years the
Holly Heisman Fund has raised over $14,000 towards these charitable ends!
Get in on the action this year, when the event will be held Sunday, August
12th. Get all the facts,
and enter to play, donate a prize, or just donate direct to this very worthy
cause. |
  (7/7)
Annotated Game:
Robert Byrne - Bobby Fischer, Sousse Interzonal (12), 1967, with
annotations by GM Amir Bagheri. GM Bagheri brings you another
epic battle of yesteryear, with his own style and analysis shining through
the play-by-play. Enjoy - and learn! Also be sure to visit GM
Bagheri's new website,
The Chess Corner
- where chess meets friendship! |
(7/7)
Nuestro Círculo #257:
7 de julio de 2007, dedicado a la ajedrecista norteamericana Gisela Kahn
Gresser (1906-2000). Publicamos biografía y partidas de la sra.
Gresser y las notas: "Difundir el ajedrez", "Recuerdos de Najdorf", "50
máximas" y "Homenaje a Leonardo Gette".
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
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(7/7)
Alekhine's Parrot:
Welcome to the
weekly leader of chess events around the world.
Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on
this week’s news where selected letters will be featured.
This week: In Memoriam - Grandmaster Maxim Sorokin
died recently in an Elista hospital, several days after an auto
crash on the Elista-to-Volgograd road.
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(7/5)
Chessville en español: Todo en una misma página - enlaces a
todo el contenido en español que tenemos en Chessville, incluyendo tus
favoritos: Nuestro Círculo y Finales...y Temas, ¡además de
contenido en español que jamás pensaste que tendríamos!
Chessville in Spanish: Brought
together one one page, links to all of the Spanish-language content we have
here at Chessville, including your favorites - Nuestro Círculo
and Finales...y Temas, plus
more Spanish-language content we'll bet you didn't even know we have!
(7/1)
Chess History: A brand new
Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia collection!
More than four dozen new additions to Graham Clayton's collection of the 'curiouser
and curiouser' world of chess history. Today you can learn about chess
playing brothers, read about a Fine performance, and plenty more, including
your favortite, a whole new bunch of "Who Am I?" posers. See who was
fighting for the top, and who was just plain fighting. For even more
great chess trivia be sure to visit the Mad Aussie's Archives:
|
 (7/1)
Review:
World Champion
Emanuel Lasker (CD),
Edited by André Schulz,
reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. "When this CD first appeared, it received considerable
flak from chess historian Richard Forster. What aroused his ire was
the candid admission in the Introduction to the "All Games" Database.
It stated:
This database contains all available games of Lasker. However, we cannot
guarantee that each game was really played by Emanuel Lasker in this way. The fact alone that a relatively strong player like Edward Lasker had the
first letter of his Christian name in common with the world champion will
certainly have caused some mix-ups.
The pertinent question is whether this confusion was avoidable. Edward
Lasker was also a famous player in his own right, with a brief but
well-documented chess career..."
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(7/1)
Interview:
Interview
with GM Raymond Keene,
by Rick Kennedy.
GM, author, and OBE, Keene converses with Chessville's Rick Kennedy on collusion in
Curaçao, laboring under Fischer's shadow,
Petrosian's greatest foe, the anti-Petrosian, and much more. "Along with writing a review of
Petrosian vs the Elite I was able to interview the author, Raymond
Keene, via email. I sent a set of questions, he responded, I sent some
follow-up questions and he again sent me his responses. Clearly there
were some topics we could have discussed for a long time, but I think
Chessville readers will enjoy our exchanges. I have added
supplementary material enclosed in brackets. [Publisher's Note:
readers might also enjoy reading Keene's brief biographical material and many columns published here in
Keene On Chess.] |
 (7/1)
Review:
Petrosian vs the
Elite, 71 Victories by the Master of Manoeuvre 1946-1983 by Ray Keene
and Julian Simpole (Batsford, 2006), reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Petrosian
was not only a deep thinker when it came to strategy, he was a gifted
tactician – a fact well-known by Grandmasters who played him in blitz, but
one which gets lost whenever the general chess-playing public constructs a
“Strategist or Tactician?” dichotomy and tries to place him in one category
or another. Petrosian was both by skill, if the former by temperament.
"Although to many this seems strange, in general I consider that in chess
everything rests on tactics. If one thinks of strategy as a block of
marble, then tactics are the chisel with which a master operates, in
creating works of chess art." – Tigran Petrosian. The
annotations in Petrosian vs the Elite are a nice balance between
textual explanation and move-analysis..." |
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(7/1)
Chess
Training: Jim Mitch (aka
Professor Chester Nuhmentz) presents the July
Chess
Vision exercise: The July
game chosen for visitors from Chessville is a 1973 masterpiece between David
Bronstein and Ljubomir Ljubojevic. Bronstein earned the First
Brilliancy Prize for this effort, in part for a rook sacrifice that doesn't
yield clear benefits until much later in the game.
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Created by
Professor
Chester
Nuhmentz
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 |
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